Abstract
The refashioning of popular cultural resources has become a salient strategy for the construction of “hyper-real” spaces of cultural consumption worldwide. Taking Lefebvre’s triadic model of space as the anchorage, this study proposes an analytical framework to examine the affective production of space. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the Central Perk café in Shanghai as replicated from the American sitcom Friends. The analysis reveals that resemiotization, recontextualization, and the spatial arrangements of the interior café enabled fan-customers to orchestrate individual-specific affective assemblages based on their varied familiarity with the sitcom and alignment with its affective values and characterization. It is found that these affective assemblages afforded fan-customers socio-atmospherics featuring a cozy, relaxed state of being and a home-like sense of belonging. The affective practices of the human-nonhuman participants turned this themed café into a lived space of affinities that helped the café owner and fan-customers cope with atomization and precarity in cosmopolitan life. It is argued that the proposed analytical framework can reveal the role of affect as a critical social force that enables individuals to fulfill their sociocultural needs and desires by appropriating transnational popular cultural resources and co-producing a cultural consumption space.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Special thanks go to Liu Xinyue for her fieldwork assistance and kindly drafting Figure 2. All errors remain my own.
Appendix: Semi-structured customer interview questions
A Basic information
What is your profession?
What is your age range?
How long have you been living in Shanghai?
Have you been to this Creative Industrial Park before? How would you comment on your experience here (local streets, shops, restaurants, theaters, pubs, and historical buildings, etc.)?
How do you come to know the Central Perk café?
How often do you come here?
Would you describe yourself as a fan of Friends? How familiar are you with the show (e.g., how many times did you watch it? How much details can you name based on self-assessment)?
B The interior/exterior design of the coffeehouse
Is the coffeehouse the same as you expected? In what respects is it different from/identical with your expectation?
What parts/details of the coffeehouse caught your attention? Do you like them or not? Why?
How would you comment on the layout of the coffeehouse? Do you think it lives up to your expectation compared with the coffeehouse in the show?
How would you describe the atmosphere in the coffeehouse? Could you use some nouns and adjectives to describe it?
What parts/elements of the coffeehouse contribute to the atmosphere you experienced (If any)? Are there some other factors which contribute to the atmosphere you experienced here?
Have you been to other branches of this franchised coffeehouse? How would you compare them?
Have you been following the coffeehouse accounts on social media? If yes, what is your impression about these posts and commentaries?
Would you post on social media about your visit here? Would you mind letting us take a look at your posts and briefly introducing them to us?
How would you describe the role/meaning of this coffeehouse in your trip/life here in Shanghai?
C Relationship between the show, the coffeehouse and personal life trajectories (for fan customers)
How did you come to know the show?
Why do you like the show?
How would you describe the significance of the show to your life/some stages of your life?
How would you describe your impression of the coffeehouse based on your familiarity with the show?
Are there some memorable moments or encounters in this coffeehouse you think worth sharing with us?
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